Sorround modes on NHF800 are absolutely terrible

[sknight]

I can't even fathom using them. Either they color the music, or they make it sound like I'm listening through a drain pipe. Biggest thing is how poor the music sounds while at a lower volume. Studio and club are the closest to normal.

Anyone else's experiences?

[RichM]

I cannot comment on the NHF800, but my 'euro-crippled' N10's surround modes were truly appalling. I tried to get on with them, but the novelty wore off very quickly. I often likened them to listening to the music down a tunnel.

Having said that, the surround sounded a little better with SP then with LP2, no doubt due to the lower compression of the former.

The NH1's surround modes sound better, less metallic, but I still don't use them. The only time the surround modes get listened to is when I cycle from Sound Off to EQ sound modes.

[Davew]

To my untrained ear, most of the surrround sound modes on the F800 sound like i'm listening from underwater or its playing in the other half of a semi.

I always listen with no surround at all, its worse than bad.

[sknight]

I wonder what the point was. I'd rather Sony saved the money and put it into giving me decent headphones, or some other crap.

I just used the EQ. Sound is great. Surround is just disgusting.

[Christopher]

Terrible, probably, but what kind of headphones are you employing?

[sknight]

848's

The sound is really decent in the other modes. I could even say the sound is better with the ex/sur off than with the surround on.

[bhangraman]

like I'm listening through a drain pipe.

I was searching for a way to describe the V-surround modes. I was thinking up lots of descriptions like "radically altered soundstaging at the expense of detail and staging reality"... but clearly I didn't think simple enough. "listening through a drain pipe"... that's exactly it.

[sknight]

Seriously, what was Sony thinking with these useless features?

[Christopher]

Actually, Sony isn't the only one. This feature is also present with Sharp Auvi units as well, and I think newer-generation Kenwood player-only units, too.

[atrain]

I can't even fathom using them.  Either they color the music, or they make it sound like I'm listening through a drain pipe. 

Anyone else's experiences?

O/T if you've got soundforge or fruity loops they actually have plugins esp. for 'drain pipes wet' & 'drain pipes dry'.

VPT tech is a meaningless gadget to add to feature list on advertising flyers. who really likes listening in a concert hall, &c - that's not why you wear cans / iso buds

[Andy]

I think a big part of the problem is that they are also trying to make a surround sound thing from a stereo source. Basically, all the DSP can do is add a touch of reverb to it, and then run anything that is coming from behind you (after this reverb) into a comb-filter (to simulate the back of your ear).

There isn't any reason why this should sound better, all it is going to do is muddy up the sound. If MD was a medium which was designed for surround sound recordings, then it might be possible to do neato stuff with this, but as it is, I don't think you can expect anything useful.

As to why they did it? My guess is that

a) It is another feature (people like features)

They had a reasonably powerful dsp which could do it, so it seemed like a waste to not do it.

[JeffS]

It would have been an improvement if they would have just added a simple crossfeed. Maybe even adjustable crossfeed to deal with some older recordings.

-Jeff